For nearly half a century, a small, sharp toothed predator
ruled the forests of a subtropical Japanese island where it never belonged. On
September 3, 2024, that reign officially ended. Japan’s Ministry of the
Environment declared that the small Indian mongoose had been completely
eradicated from Amami Oshima, a UNESCO World Heritage Island in Kagoshima
Prefecture. Officials called it a miracle. Scientists called it a world first.
And for the island’s endangered rabbits, it meant survival....
